JorgeDavid

Oh! It does not sound as complex as I would expect it to be! So basically you composed tonally but then make use of the microtones for adjusting for those tuning differences that the 12TET does not account for, right? But the, I am wondering, is it done only on the third of the prevailing harmony? In other words, if you have a bar where the harmony is Cmajor, for that whole bar you would flatten only the note E every time it appears? Or you flatten the notes respectively to the counterpoint? For example, if you have a melody in thirds you flatten the third with respect to the bottom voice? The first movement of the string quartet sounds amazing! Microtones seem to feel much more natural for strings than on the harpsichord. But I imagine it takes a little bit of time to get used to the new sound since we are so accustomed to 12TET. It is a really interesting concept and so convenient that we can change the tune so easily with the notation softwares!

Thank you so much, @PeterthePapercomPoser! Yes. I am planning on improving on it. Today I added the first solo, which I actually like quite a lot! I am trying to learn about different sections for now and, in the future, maybe add the whole band (or even making a new arrangement for it). For now, I will try to complete the solos, development and ending with this ensemble, as adding more instruments might be too big task for now! You are right, the singers and players (not on piano, of course, but even on piano they play both minor and major thirds almost at the same time to create the effect) make the tones lower on the blue third, so I think your idea is really good! But microtones is still such a unknown world for me. I see you have been composing with them lately! I heard to the invention and really enjoyed it. How does it work? Do you use it for adjusting the thirds according to the tonality of that moment so they are better tuned than with 12TET? I imagine it must be quite complex to decide on which notes to tweak and how much to tweak them. For passing chords I follow different methods depending on the context. I do not know much so, to be honest, for this time I just tried to keep it simple. I just harmonized in 4-voice close with the doubling of the melody in the bari sax and always leaving at least a minor 3rd between the top two notes. Then, I decided which tones to consider non-harmonic. I think that is the most interesting part, since in Jazz you could harmonize a 2nd in the melody as a passing tone or as an harmonic tone all the same. Then I followed one of four methods for the non-harmonic tones: Chromatic or step movement to the next harmonic tone in all voices. Diatonic movement to the next harmonic tone in all voices. Harmonizing with the dominant (if one note) or a chain of dominants or common progressions such as ii-V-I. Free counterpoint. I guess I used some diminished chords but mostly as a way of using the dominant with the b9. I did not use diminished chords as a "free pass" since I composed it mostl for getting used to the different methods. Finally I just changed the bass here and there but rarely, sometimes doubling other voices and sometimes with free melodies. It is a really "practical" method but, in the end, it actually gave much more freedom than I expected, even if following those simple steps. There are much more complex voicings that I want to get into in the future, but for now I decided to focus on the basics first! Thank you so much for commenting!

Thank you @Henry Ng Tsz Kiu, I am glad you enjoyed it! I was not familiar with it either but recently I decided to learn jazz piano and I find it fascinating. I also love the fact that if you create a melody and chord progression you already have the skeleton for a whole jazz piece, which is really different to how I am used to composing. However, too many things to learn and understand yet, though, so I need to take it slow and keep on practicing with this theme or other ones I come up with! Thank you so much for listening and commenting!

Hello everyone! I am studying jazz piano and today I composed a blues theme and arranged it for big band (actually only for rhythm section and saxophones at the moment). I just did it as a little exercise. I am planning to focus on piano playing for some time but I have found that applying the ideas and concepts I learn for composing and arranging helps me improve faster both in my playing and composition skills. For this arrangement I used the knowledge I recently acquired for piano voicings, five voice jazz harmonization, and bass walking bass. All voicings and harmonization are quite basic and I am also sure there must be many mistakes :S. I have not learn anything about drums yet so the drums were just copied big band scores I found online, so I do not know yet what the drum is doing. I might use this theme (or some others I might compose) for slowly practicing Big Band arranging while I learn piano so this is only an exercise that I might keep on improving on. It is my first time composing and arranging jazz so any feedback for the theme or the arrangement is more than welcome. Thank you nd hope you like it!

I really enjoyed it. Specially I loved the way in which you avoided finishing the piece in m.31 and extended it for a few measures. I think it is really beautiful and well-crafted! Thanks for sharing!

I really really enjoyed this reading! I also loved the little sample piece you composed for showing the technique! I have observed two mistakes in the URL links: The second link Tintinnabuli (II) redirects me to the first section Tintinnabuli (I). After section V there is only a section VII. Not sure if the section VII is supposed to be the VI, or if you have an extra section VI that you forgot to upload. Thank you so much for sharing this!

Thank you so much, @Henry Ng Tsz Kiu! I am really glad you enjoyed this string quartet arrangement! 😄 Thanks for listening and commenting!

Thank you so much for listening and commenting @PeterthePapercomPoser! I am really glad you liked it! You are right, the F chord was notated really badly! Since I might have to re-record everything soon I transcribed the audio into a sheet score today (I had not written it down and I was starting to forget the notes so I wrote it down for not forgetting them 😅) and I needed to notate the chords in the score too, since there is an improvised section. So I corrected that F chord into an Fmaj13(#11). Thank you for letting me know! You are right, the main reason I used the synth pad was because the string sounds are really really bad in my digital piano. I have a Yamaha P-515, which I really love but, among one of its cons, is the fact that there are not many midi sounds available and most of them are quite bad. Since synth sounds are normally okay in any keyboard I selected those. However, the short film is set in an industrial neighborhood of a large modern city, so the synth sound does not sound too bad in the context. Yes, I played all of this by myself. But it is not particularly hard to play. The main problem were the slides because I had not played guitar for a long long time so the "hard-skin" of my left-hand fingers is totally gone and they did hurt quite a lot. In general the fingers from the left hand were hurting for the whole time 😅 As when I play piano, I tried to compensate the lack of technical virtuosity with expressive playing but in many places I made mistakes :S. Also there was an improvised part and I am not good at improvising so you can tell I am doubting a lot while playing that section. If I re-record it I will try to play it exactly the same but without mistakes or doubtful notes! Thank you so much for commenting!

Thank you so much for listening and commenting, @panta rei! I am really glad you enjoyed the piece! Thank you for the suggestions too! Many people are noting the accented half-notes so I will probably modify that in future revisions. Some people, like you, have also commented about the pizzicato notes so I am also considering turning those into a soft arco note. Yes, I also like the piece as it is but it's true the I feel a little bit bad about the piece being so short. Also, as you commented, having a second section before the restatement of the main theme would show the main theme a different light, more melancholic thanks to the contrast. I really like this theme so the possibility of making fresh like that is one of the main reasons I would like to expand it. These days I am writing down some ideas and melodies that might work for a second part and will test them as soon as I have time to compose! Thank you so much for the comment!

Hello everyone, A friend of mine has made a short film and asked me to try to make some music for the last scene and the credits. He wanted it all played with real instruments so I had to work with what I had, a cheap classical guitar and an digital piano. It is my first time composing in such a style and with real instruments (I mixed it all in Reaper). The instruments are: 2 classical guitars, piano, electronic dark pad, electric bass (the electric bass is also played in the piano). The piece is based on a 8-bar harmonic progression which could be understood as: Amin9(no5) - Amin9(no5) - Amin9(no5) - Amin9(no5) - Fmaj13(#11) - E7 - Fmaj13(#11) - E7/G#. At 1:30 the credits start so there is change in texture and the melody becomes improvised before playing the main theme once more and then the ending of the chord progression at the same time that the credits are ending. The piece is called "The Heaviest Burden", a reference to Milan Kundera's "The Unbearable Lightness of Being", since the last scene of the short film reminds me to the ideas found in that book. The piece is supposed to be melancholic/nostalgic but with a little bit of hope. I recorded the guitars with my mobile phone and the rest directly from the digital piano sound exporting function. Really cheap guitar with years-old strings and no nails in my fingers so the sound is really dark and hollow. It all sounded as a toy at first but I think the reverb made a really impressive job for making everything sound better. Also, I learned how to reduce noise and, in general, I think it turned out quite okay. Any feedback about the piece is more than welcome! Thank you!

Thank you so much @Rich, I really appreciate the nice words! I was not considering expanding it (I am always reticent to expand works as I am afraid of making them worse). However, this is becoming my favorite piece the more I listen to it so I am considering turning it into a large ternary form. Adding a contrasting binary/ternary theme in the major mode or maybe the VIb and then repeating this section (but shorter). However, I feel it is still above my level so probably I will take it slow and try to come up with a continuation and compose it without rushing. I hope I can make it some day! I did not know Janacek but I listened to his "Idyll" while working today and I really enjoyed it! I will give it a listen again one of this days, it had quite some beautiful moments. I really like your suggestion and I agree it would probably sound better. That said, the midi file plays the accent too loud so in a real performance it would probably sound softer (but still loud, though). Maybe you are right and it is probably better having a softer more dissonant chord. I will give it a try in the future to see if I find something that I like and does not disrupt the lyrical flow. Thank you so much for your comment!

I agree, I never tough about piece titles too much but now I feel that it is important to consider what the titles will mean for other people and the expectations for the piece they might have depending on the it. Learning extended harmonies is one of the things I want to do the most. I have been studying (slowly) some Jazz harmony and Neo-Riemannian theories but I am still far from been able to apply them to my pieces. I also feel I can only apply sounds that I have also encounter in other real pieces by composers (I am not able to just apply theories if I have not experienced those particular sounds by myself) so the process of learning is slow. This is, for now, my most harmonically adventurous piece but I expect to slowly get more modern sounds as I keep practicing! Thanks for the comments!

Thanks @Kvothe, I am glad you enjoyed it! Yes, one of the things I wanted to do is arrange the melody for all the different instruments at least for a few bars, and to have accompaniment that was not always below the melody (since this is something I am not particularly good at). I feel it is hard, especially when using midi sounds in which the lack of proper dynamics can make the top notes overpower everything, but I think it worked well for this piece! I can agree, since now it does not sound so good. I know I want that note there, either pizzicato or "arco", but in any case, I want it soft. I think I prefer the pizzicato but the software sound plays it too strong and, as you say, it feels a little sudden. In my mind, a really "ppp" pizzicato would sound okay, but I am not totally sure yet. I am still testing that note deciding on what to do with it, but for now I left the pizzicato, although I tried to make it a little softer (but the software sounds seem to have some volume limitation and "pppp", "ppp", "pp"... all sound the same 😅) Many people have pointed out that the title "Minuet" is a little misleading so I decided to change it to "Romance", which I think is a form that fits much better the tempo, lyrical character and mood of the piece. Thank you so much for listening and commenting!

Thank you so much for your comment @Some Guy That writes Music! I am really glad you gave those appreciations since one of the things I have been focusing on lately is trying to make my music seem more "simple" by stripping the music out of too many unnecessary notes. I used to overload my music with notes, which I do not think is bad in itself, but I think many times I did it unconsciously for concealing lack of harmonic interest. I have been trying to go back to the basics by playing simple pieces on piano and a little bit of figure bass in order to slowly acquire a better grasp in harmony (so later, if I use many notes, I will know it is not out of lack of harmonic skills). Thank you so much for listening and commenting!

EDIT: Changed the name of the piece from "Sentimental Minuet" to "Romance" since I received feedback from several people that the piece was indeed too slow and the "minuet" label was misleading. I believe "Romance/Romanza" fits the style of the composition much better. Hello everyone, I upload here the arrangement for String Quartet I made of my "Sentimental Minuet for Piano". It was originally a saxophone quartet but I realized the melody was always played by the top instrument and it felt repetitive. I tried rearranging the saxophone quartet but it became too hard. Since I understand string instruments a little better I turned it into a string quartet to be able to arrange something less repetitive with the melody going through all the different instruments. Any feedback about the arrangement or the composition itself is more than welcome! Thank you and hope you enjoy it! ------- Original Piano Piece -----------